Sanford Speaks Out is the latest blog sensation written, edited and produced by Sanford D. Horn, a writer and educator. Sanford will write about issues of the day covering a myriad subjects: politics, education, culture, sports, religion and even food.

Monday, July 23, 2012

On the day following the dismantling of the statue of Joe
Paterno on the campus of Penn State University the rest of the football program
has rightfully suffered a more deeply impacting disabling.

Both the stripping of the campus of the statue of the
iconic coach, six months to the day of his death, January 22, and the
punishment thrust upon the university were appropriate and overdue. The
objections by students on campus at the removal of the statue of Paterno, who
coached at Penn State from 1966-2011, is demonstrative of how the culture of
sports and hero-worship has far superseded what is right, proper and moral and
perhaps indicative of how the NCAA did not go far enough in its punitive
actions against the school.

The university, and the football team specifically, have
been sanctioned by the NCAA for its complicity in the child abuse sex scandal
that rocked the Happy Valley campus to its core last fall. This scandal saw
former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky convicted of abusing 10 boys. The true number
of young boys molested, violated and/or abused may never be known, and while
the lost innocence of those boys can never be replaced, the sanctions against
Penn State are a good start. Hopefully, the severity of the punitive actions,
while not deep enough, will deliver a message across the nation’s campuses that
humanity and morality will trump sports and the protection of so-called heroes
at the risk and potential loss of children’s innocence.

Sandusky deserves nothing less than to pay for his
vicious crimes with the ultimate penalty – his life. Yes, the death penalty is
most appropriate for the perverse and unconscionable crimes of robbing young,
impressionable children of their trust, protection and innocence – irrevocably altering
their lives. Yet, the sanctions imposed upon Penn State have nothing to do with
the ongoing criminal investigations, said Mark Emmert, NCAA president.

Sandusky may be the lowest of the low, but the cover up
is just as much a part of this whole sordid tale – just ask the ghost of
Richard M. Nixon. As such, the assistant coaches and Paterno are just as
complicit, and the university obviously agreed, firing the coach proven to have
feet of clay on November 9, 2011, along with relieving Graham Spanier of his
duties as university president.

The current regime must now cope with the loss of $60
million – the financial penalty equivalent to one year of football’s gross receipts.
The $60 million is to be paid out at $12 million increments over the next five
years into an endowment to benefit victims of child sex abuse. This money
cannot come at the expense of non-revenue sports or the student-athlete
scholarships, yet, while academic sources were not ruled out, Emmert said such
a plan would be inappropriate.

Ultimately, I fear a large chunk of this fine will come
from the coffers of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which
would be wholly unacceptable.

While not sanctioned with the so-called Death Penalty,
the punishment imposed upon Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1987 for
paying players thousands of dollars, the penalties facing Penn State will
certainly hamstring the football program for many years to come – presumably long
after the penalty phase expires.

“We did not feel the suspension of play would be
appropriate,” said Dr. Edward Bay, NCAA Executive Committee Chair and President
of Oregon State University.

Such a punishment would send an eye-opening message that
this scandal is bigger than the tarnished reputation of Joe Paterno, bigger
than football, bigger than sports and certainly bigger than the demands of the
fans, boosters and alumni. The need for a cultural change is vital, in spite of
the unintended harm that would come from the secession of play for one season.

Clearly arguments can be made on both sides of the death
penalty coin. The revenue lost to the university for the six home games, the
exposure given to the band and cheerleaders, as well as the income lost to the
vendors is at stake. The university would need to pay the schools of the six
road games for lost revenue.

But the bigger picture is that the institution of football
is not too big to fail; that the culture of sports is not too big to fail.
These are tragic circumstances which require harsh and immediate meaningful actions.

For the next four years, 2013-17, Penn State is banned
from participating in bowl or other post-season games, including the Big Ten
conference championship. As for the conference title game, the university will
forfeit about $13 million over the same four year period, also to be donated.

Additionally, the Penn State football program has been
sacked in the scholarship department on two levels. The NCAA has limited new annual
scholarships from 25 a year down to 15 for each of the next four years in
addition to limiting the number of total scholarship players each of the same
four years to 65, down from 85.

Clearly this will impact recruitment on top of the
post-season ban. Major high school recruits will want to play where they have
an opportunity to appear in a bowl or other post-season games. They will likely
seek to avail their skills to other programs. On the other hand, Penn State
head coach Bill O’ Brien must sell his program to players who might not have
the opportunity to earn serious playing time at another major institution.

As for the current squad of Penn State football players,
they will be allowed to transfer without the traditional penalty of yielding
one year of their eligibility. Should players decide to remain at Penn State
and not continue to play football, the university is required to honor the
scholarships of those players. And those scholarships would count toward the 65
permitted for that season.

Penn State will also be placed on five years probation
during which time it is expected to work with an academic integrity monitor, an
independent, third-party to report on Penn State’s progress, at a cost to be
absorbed by the university. This is designed to elucidate the university to
embrace values appropriate for an institution of higher education complete with
the virtues of fair play on the field, positive moral values off the field and
a place where children can be nurtured, protected and educated.

This is a “horrifically egregious situation,” said
Emmert. “No one feels good about this. This is an unprecedented, painful
chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics.”

“We hope we are never here again,” said Bay.

Former NCAA and NFL coach Lou Holtz predicted “serious
fan drop offs” from the more than 100,000 fans per home game to around 50,000.

One additional penalty, with which I found objectionable,
but understand the reasoning behind it, is that all wins earned by Penn State
and Paterno from 1998 through 2011 will be vacated. The year 1998 was selected
as it represents the first reporting of abuse and the failure of Paterno and
the university to act appropriately. For the record, 112 wins will be forfeited,
all but one under Paterno’s name, dropping him from the winningest Division I coach
down to fifth place with 298 wins behind
Bobby Bowden (377), Bear Bryant (323), Pop Warner (319), and Amos Alonzo Stagg
(314).

While I understand removing Paterno from the top of that
elite list, it also punishes the hundreds of players who presumably had nothing
to do with the sex abuse scandal. It offers the implication of on-field
cheating by otherwise honest football players. The wins earned by those players
on the field should stand.

Make no mistake; I am not defending Paterno, by any stretch
of the imagination. In fact, my animus toward Penn State far pre-dates this sex
abuse scandal. As any University of Maryland alumnus can site, there is a bad
history on the gridiron between the two schools – with Penn State leading Maryland
in the all-time series 35 wins, one loss and one tie. Maryland’s lone victory
occurred in 1961 and the Terrapins have not won since.

And while I am a tremendous sports fan, I have placed
this monstrous scandal in its proper place and perspective. The Pennsylvania State
University must suffer the consequences of the actions of its employees. The
sanctions will undoubtedly prove deleterious to the football program, but
hopefully the message will be received around the nation’s campuses that
immoral, lascivious behavior, including, but not limited to, the molestation of
children will never again be tolerated or covered up.

Paterno was not G-d and football is not a religion. Amen.

Sanford D. Horn is
a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He is an alumnus of the University
of Maryland and a member of its Terrapin Club, supporting the scholarship
program for athletes.

Monday, July 16, 2012

“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your
own…. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There
was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this
unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody
invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.
Somebody else made that happen.” – Barack Hussein Obama

Obama’s True Colors Make Right See Red

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

July 16, 2012

Christmas and Chanukah have come early for the Mitt Romney
campaign – as it is not about black and white, but instead it is about red and
green.

This is Barak Obama’s Joe the Plumber moment. During the
2008 campaign, Obama spoke one on one with Ohio plumber Samuel Joseph
Wurzelbacher, who has since become a candidate for Congress himself. Obama told
Wurzelbacher that “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

True colors, Obama outed himself as more than just a far
left Democrat, but someone who believes in the redistribution of wealth. That
the haves should give to the have nots. This is not a belief in capitalism, but
instead, socialism bordering on communism – the red menace.

It’s all about context, will claim the left-wing,
lame-stream media in defense of its hero, Obama, who unleashed a firestorm when
he brazenly announced that all those successful businesses in the United States
owe their success to the government and not the hard working men and women who
risked their own capital, time, ingenuity and sanity in the quest for the next
best – fill in the blank – widget, underwater phone, or intestinal camera.

Those are Obama’s words above – direct from the Socialist
in Chief’s mouth at a speech given in Roanoke, VA. The words that demonize
personal wealth and investment; that denigrate those entrepreneurs who risked
their personal capital, created something due to their own inventiveness, hired
people to work and see that plan drawn up at the kitchen table become a three dimensional
reality.

These entrepreneurs have earned their green and deserve
to keep as much of it as possible. Those people who did not create businesses,
wealth, or take the risks are not entitled to nickel one from those who earned
their success.

One does not need a Ph.D. in political science to
understand what Obama means, where he is coming from, and to where he is going.
What little of his life known to the public has been a blueprint straight from
the Saul Alinsky playbook Rules for Radicals
(1971). Obama is a classic statist – the belief that government should control
the economy and/or social policy – the complete antithesis of the creation by
America’s Founding Fathers.

Obama’s conversation with Joe the Plumber and his speech
in Virginia were not gaffes. He’s got Joe Biden for that. Those words, direct
from Obama, is Obama in his truest incarnation. He damns success and wants
people to be ashamed of it as he continues to be the Divider in Chief – playing
the class warfare card to its utmost pinnacle.

Yes, roads, bridges, and tunnels are typically government
projects. But they are funded with the people’s money – taxpaying Americans who
have achieved success and are paying their fair share to ensure that people can
get back and forth to work for that successful businessperson who pays their
salaries and wages. The businessmen and women who pay their taxes to ensure the
safety of the public domain so people can spend their money on the products
that made that businessman and woman a success.

Obama cited Henry Ford as someone whose success was
predicated upon government. Like the age old question, which came first, the
chicken or the egg, did Henry Ford build cars for the existing roads, or were roads
built to serve a growing need due to the new automobile industry? Ford’s
expanding auto industry spawned the need for more roads to be built, not the
other way around.

(Oh, FYI – the chicken came first. On the fourth day, “G-d
created… all the winged birds of every kind.” [Genesis 1:21])

As for the claim by Obama that “there was a great teacher
somewhere in your life,” that may be true. As an educator, there’s an enormous
amount of pride to boast when a student succeeds. But make no mistake; those
teachers are paid for with the property taxes afforded by successful Americans
able to own their own homes. Again, no need to further prime the pump, Mr.
Obama.

Obama is so anti-business, it’s no surprise he is calling
for the raising of the tax rates on dividends and capital gains. Both are
currently taxed at 15 percent, but if Obama has his way, the tax rate on
capital gains will rise to 23.8 percent and dividends will be taxed at an
astronomical rate of 43.3 percent. (www.foxnews.com)
This will send the stock market into a tither just prior to those new rates
kicking in. People will be less willing to risk their capital when the returns
will be so diminished, thanks to Obama’s desire to punish the risk takers.
Where is the reward for those people taking the risks?

With the potential for fewer people to take risks,
invest, or open businesses, unemployment will continue to rise, and, eventually
the economy will be crippled by more people being dependent upon government
largesse which will ultimately dry up as the tax coffers progressively
dissipate.

More investments and jobs will be driven overseas to more
friendly economies as this administration continues to call for stark
reductions in the defense budget and still refuses to balance its own budget as
debt figures approach $16 trillion.

Obama should answer the following: if government is
responsible for the success of
business due to the existence of taxpayer funded public school teachers, is the
same government responsible for the
increasing numbers of drop outs?

If government is responsible for the success of business due to the existence of taxpayer funded roads,
bridges, and tunnels, is government responsible
for the drunk drivers that inhabit the same infrastructure?

If government is responsible for the success of business due to the existence of taxpayer funded research
creating the internet, is government responsible
for the cyber stalkers who prey on children?

Government is nothing without the entrepreneurs,
inventors, and innovators, who erect, create, hire and fill the tax coffers to
allow government to build the roads, bridges, tunnels, cyber infrastructure,
public airwaves of television and radio and public schools.

Obama’s words were “insulting to every entrepreneur and
innovator in America,” said Romney. Of course Romney is right in his assertion,
and as a businessman who saved the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, he
would know.

Government more often than not interferes with business.
It overregulates business to the point of pushing it out of the United States. Even
the simplest business – that of a child’s lemonade stand. In this era of uber-litigiousness,
a permit costing more than the child might reasonably expect to earn is
crushing young entrepreneurship.

Rugged individualism is the cornerstone upon which the United
States was founded, built, and expanded from sea to shining sea. Yet, with the
Obama administration, government is to be praised as the reason behind anyone’s
success. According to the Obama blueprint, the only good jobs are government
jobs. This is an abandonment of capitalism that could lead to the dilution of
the Republic.

It is not too late to change course back to the direction
intended by the Founding Fathers and give Romney, a proven business success, a
chance to right the ship that is America.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Is it the collective sanity of the thinking American that
is at question? Or does Eric Holder, the feckless attorney general of the
United States simply does not have a grip on reality?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID prior to boarding
an airplane?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
purchasing alcohol? Tobacco? Firearms?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
writing a check? Making a bank deposit? Using a credit card?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
applying for a driver’s license? A library card?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
visiting a medical office for the first time as part of the paperwork regimen?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
entering a government building?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
applying for or signing a mortgage application?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
filling out the paperwork upon starting new employment?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
collecting lottery or casino winnings?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
registering for college as a freshman or transfer?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
picking up a package at the post office or UPS?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
claiming a prize at an events’ drawing?

Is it racist when asked to produce a photo ID when
checking into a hotel, convention hall or other event with a roster of attendees?

Is there anyone reading this who has not suffered such an
indignity? That someone should deign to quantify who is standing before him or
her in any of the above circumstances and others not listed?

Yet, according to Holder, the attorney general refusing to
prosecute members of the New Black Panther party for voter intimidation in
Philadelphia in 2008, it is racist to expect voters to identify themselves at
polling places making it akin to a poll tax, and an indignity to ones
self-esteem.

It is Holder who is the racist for assuming blacks and
Hispanics are unable to procure a photo ID. Really? Are all blacks and
Hispanics so destitute and without means they are unable to find the means with
which to identify themselves prior to casting a vote, one the most basic tenets
of being an American? Sounds terribly stereotypical, pandering and a lowering
of the bar.

That Holder has lowered the bar is in itself racist. As a
supporter of affirmative action, Holder should know how racist that is – an admission that those groups
being given an edge simply because of their race because they can’t accomplish –
fill in the blank – earning admission into college, garnering employment, etc.
on their own merits.

When states like Florida, Georgia and Texas, among others
are advertising ways in which legally qualified voters are able to procure a
standard government ID gratis, how can that be compared to a poll tax? There
have even been mobile units willing to go to the voters themselves if they do
not have the means with which to get to the ID producer. Securing a customary
form of identification has never been easier, and yet, Holder continues to
trumpet from the rooftops that to require a voter ID is a form of voter suppression
by the GOP in an effort to steal elections.

Quite the opposite is true. Republicans supporting voter
ID laws across the country are attempting to ensure that only legally qualified
voting citizens are afforded the privilege of casting their ballot on Election
Day. It is Holder and those who support his illogical notion that are willfully
creating a circumstance by which illegals, the dead and those who simply have
no right to vote in a particular polling location are enabled to do just that,
That is voter fraud, pure and simple. That is Holder and his minions attempting
to steal elections.

And by the way, those members of the press who covered
Holder’s recent speaking engagements were denied admission without producing a federally
issued photo ID. Further demonstrating his hypocrisy, attendees at his NAACP
speech in Houston were also required to provide a photo ID, this in a state
where Holder is fighting against Texas law requiring photo ID at polling
places.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Like most Americans I look forward to the pageantry of
the opening ceremonies of the 40th Summer Olympiad that will
commence on Friday, July 27 in London – the parade of nations with their flags
carried proudly by one of that country’s heroes as well as the various national
garbs worn by its athletes and team members.

However, amid all the pomp and circumstance, the
cheering, the display of sportsmanship as the athletes take the Olympic pledge
will be lost that this is the 40th anniversary of the darkest moment
in Olympic history. For it was on September 5, 1972, that the Games of the 20th
Olympiad in Munich, West Germany shockingly turned from the games of peace to a
waking nightmarish tragedy.

Shortly after 4 a.m., eight Palestinian terrorists from
Black September, a faction of the PLO invaded the Olympic village kidnapping 11
Israeli athletes and trainers. Upon the initial assault, the Israelis fought
back, to the detriment of Moshe Weinberg and Yossef Romano – shot dead
instantly.

Over the next 18-plus hours, tensions mounted as the
Israelis continued to be held by the Black September terrorists who made the
demand of the Israeli government to release 234 prisoners held in Israeli
jails.

Ultimately, the Israeli hostages were moved and loaded
into two helicopters, where after 10:40 p.m. shots fired outside the
helicopters led the terrorists to believe they were under attack.

“A terrorist shot four of the
hostages in one helicopter as another Palestinian
tossed a grenade inside. The explosion ignited the fuel tank, and the captive Israelis burned. Another terrorist
then shot the Israelis in the other helicopter.
Germans present at the airfield still remember the screams. Eleven Israelis, five Palestinians and one
German police officer died during the Munich tragedy.”
(www.independent.co.uk)

The late, great sportscaster Jim McKay, thrust into round-the-clock duty in
an era prior to cable television and 24-hour news cycles, reported with his
usual aplomb, the events as they unfolded right down to the final shots. McKay
said it best: “Our worst fears have been realized… There were 11 hostages; two
were killed in their rooms yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport
tonight. They’re all gone.”

The games resumed, hardly missing a beat and for 40 years, the tragedy has
been swept under the rug – a permanent stain on the games, permeated by
terrorism and rife with perpetual anti-Semitism, largely ignored by the global
community.

Once again, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) under the alleged
leadership of President Jacques Rogge had denied the numerous requests that
this tragedy be recognized with a mere minute of silence during the opening
ceremonies in London, on this, the 40th anniversary of Munich.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard wrote to Rogge in hopes of
garnering some recognition for the slain Israeli Olympic team at the London
Olympics.

“The
occasion of the Olympic Games in London this summer also marks the 40th anniversary of the terrible
tragedy that occurred in Munich during the 1972
Olympic Games.

On behalf of the
Commonwealth of Australia, I am writing respectfully to express support for the observation of a moment of silence
to be held at the 2012 London
Olympic Games opening ceremony, or at an appropriate time during the Games, so that the Olympic movement can
honour, before the world, the memory
of those whose lives were lost during that horrific event.” (www.theaustralian.com.au)

As an
American, the question must be asked of Barack Obama, sports-fan-in-chief,
where was your letter to the president of the IOC? You spent so much time and
taxpayer dollars overseas attempting to procure an Olympics for your adopted
hometown of Chicago. Did you not want to offend your Arab allies by taking up
for 11 dead Israelis? Do you continue to think that little of Israel while
continuing to rake in millions of dollars from the Jewish voting community you
take for granted?